Carrie&Corey - March 3, 2011 @ CSA

We arrived at Couples Swept Away on Monday February 28. Our welcome package from the front desk included an invitation to meet with Alicia, the wedding coordinator, on Wednesday, the day before our wedding. Our photographer Diana Campbell called our room later that day to get our room number and confirm her arrival on the morning of the wedding.

We enjoyed the beach for a few days and met with Alicia Wednesday morning. Alicia took us through a checklist of final decisions and she gives you a copy of this when you're finished.

We chose our wedding location, the beach. I was nervous about getting married on the beach where others could see us, but honestly, you sort of forget about everyone else during the ceremony. And if you give them a nice kiss, they all clap and cheer for you LOL!

I brought pictures with me of what kind of bouquet I wanted and had a quote from Debbie on the price. We chose Corey's boutineer and the flowers for my hair. My bouquet cost $85US and the flowers for my hair were $12US. Alicia gave me a bill for these which I had to pay at the front desk.

I also had a picture with me of how I wanted my cake and table decorated. I left the cake topper and those accessories with Alicia.

After we met with Alicia, I realized that I should get my dress steamed. I brought the dress to the wedding office and they took care of that for me. But just so you know, it ended up costing me $75US!! I thought that was a bit much.

The morning of the wedding, we had room service breakfast and I headed over to the salon for hair and makeup at 8am. Corey had a quick workout at the gym and then a shower before I got back to the room. Diana Campbell and her son Richard arrived while I was at the salon and began taking pictures and video. I had printed off some photos from other weddings that I've been collecting all year, and they were more than happy to ensure that they gave me all the poses I asked for.

Sharieka was the wedding coordinator on our wedding day. She called just before 10am and brought our flowers to the room while we were finishing getting ready. The florist wasn't able to get the gerbera daisies I wanted for my bouquet, but they used the same colours as I wanted and I actually liked the bouquet they sent better than the one I had requested! My hair flowers were orchids and sprayed orange to match Corey's boutineer.

Sharieka walked us to the beach and introduced us to our minister Lloyd Francis who was such a nice man! Just before the wedding was about to start, the ipod fell in the sand and wouldn't play music. They suggested we do the ceremony without the music, but it wouldn't have been the same for me, so we asked Sharieka to please get us some music! She went back to the wedding office to get a new ipod. It delayed everything by a half hour or so because they had to re-load our music on the new ipod, but it was worth the wait for us!! AND becuase of the delay, we were given a private dinner on the beach that night at no charge!!

Our ceremony was beautiful, and we signed the register with the minister at the beach gazebo. Our cake table was set up in the garden and it was decorated beautifully. We cut the cake and had a toast while our music played in the background. Then it was picture time for about 2 hours during which time we were congratulated by virtually everyone whose paths we crossed LOL. After pictures we went back to the room for some private time and then had some lunch.

We dressed up in our wedding gear for our private dinner on the beach. I must say, it was truly magical and the perfect ending to our wedding day! The food was amazing and the atmosphere was incredible. If you can work this into your budget, I would highly recommend it. We went to Feathers later in the week, but it was nothing compared to the private dinner!

We were pretty tired by the end of the day and crashed shortly after our dinner on the beach!

Diana called us to meet on Sunday, the day before we were leaving. She delivered our photos, slideshow and video and allowed us to browse them on her laptop. The pictures turned out better than I could've imagined.

We had such an incredible experience, I can't completely describe it.

Just one note for future brides...you CANNOT use the $500 resort credit you may have received to pay the $500 vendor fee the hotel charges for outside photographers.

Thanks for your detailed review. Your pics are very nice. You had a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky.
One question, you said you have room service breakfast the day of your wedding. What did that entail? Was it just continental foods or a full breakfast?

Our room service breakfast was a continental one, so we had a basket of pastries, cereal, coffee and a fruit plate.

I'm not sure why the steaming was so expensive...I thought it would only be $25US at the most! Maybe because they sent it off the resort to a drycleaning service??

There were rose bouquets available for upgrade, but they were expensive. The bouquets I really liked in the book Alicia showed us were $225US!!

I brought all the decorations with me for the cake. I got the flowers at Michael's. They decorated the cake and the table for me with what I provided them.

We tipped the minister $20US. We left it in an envelope at the wedding office since we forgot to bring it with us to the ceremony!

I will check on the size of the cake topper, I don't know off hand.

Karlene at the resort salon did my makeup. She used some of her own makeup and used whatever I brought with me. I brought MAC prep-n-prime, MAC blot powder, and Physicians Formula bronzing beads. She did an amazing job, I was so happy I decided to get it done for me.

Were you able to use the $ 500 resort credit for anything wedding related? Like your bouquet upgrade or dress steaming? Just curious. We're already doing the private dinner, and we get two free massages while we're there, one for the wedding and one for being repeaters so I don't want to spend any more time at the spa really. I am getting my hair done at the spa the day of the wedding. So, I'm thinking I will use over half the credit on my hair and the private dinner combined, but I have no clue what we're going to use the rest on? If you don't mind me asking, how did you guys use your $ 500?

Thanks for sharing your day with us and for all the info!!! It sounds like the perfect day!!! We hired Stacey Clarke to do our pics, and I'm so excited! I will look at your pics tonight when I get home from work. I can't access facebook at work. :O( But I'm sure they are amazing, and I can't wait to see them. Our wedding is March 21st at 11am! I'm sooo excited! We leave for Jamaica in 4 days!!! Yay!!!

How exciting Kristy! Can't wait to see your pictures and review! We leave 3 weeks from Wed, and get married 3 weeks from Friday. It sounds like we are in the exact same boat as you with the resort credit - Let me know what you use yours on. I figure I can easily blow a few hundred in the gift shop

I also had email confirmation that I could use the resort credit for the vendor fee. I printed it off and brought it with me, because they have since changed their policy. You cannot use the credit toward the cost of flowers or any of the expenses charged by the wedding coordinator.

I think it's unfair because it's not the outside vendor charging us, the HOTEL is charging us!

I already have email confirmation that I can use my resort credit for my photography fees. I think I'm the only Bride who is having issues with this process.

You can use your credit for photos that are taken by the resort photographers and to pay for those pics/videos etc, but I was told by Randy on the message board that you could not use the credit to pay outside photographer fees (the $ 500). This is after Debbie already e-mailed other people and said they could. :O(

I have an email from Debbie and from Gisele both stating I could use the $500 credit I received. The credit I am receiving is for the "celebrations group" b/c we currently have over 10 rooms booked so this could be a different kind of credit then others are talking about. But I have email confirmation and had verbal confirmation with Gisele. I will be very upset and if they give back on their word b/c it was the whole reason I ended up booking an outside photographer since I knew that I could use that credit to pay for the vendor fee.

We got married 13th November 2010 at Swept away, it was the most amazing experience of our lives. The staff the weather the resort everything would like to share our photos but can't get them to load onto this site. help!!!!!!!

How exciting Kristy! Can't wait to see your pictures and review! We leave 3 weeks from Wed, and get married 3 weeks from Friday. It sounds like we are in the exact same boat as you with the resort credit - Let me know what you use yours on. I figure I can easily blow a few hundred in the gift shop

Have fun!

I am confused.....are you all getting a resort credit for being repeat visitors or just for being guests? This will be our first trip and I hadn't heard anything about a credit. Can someone please explain?????